andrew dodson

A few months back, I mentioned that I’ve been trying to do better with my budget.  For the most part, I’ve made more positive progress than negative.  I’m not sitting where I wanted to be at this point, but I have paid off a couple of debts that I’d set a goal to pay off by this time.

Most people that know me also know that I like my “stuff.”  Seems like I always have something on my wishlist.  Being content is definitely something I need to work on!

With that said, having a lot of “stuff” in the drum world also leads to flexibility.  How does this relate to a budget, you say?  With my hybrid drum concept over the last month or so, it led me to think that I needed more stuff to make it happen.  With my electronic drums living at church most of the time, I wanted to put together another hybrid drumset that I could have at home and take to gigs with me.  It would save me a lot of time and effort if I didn’t have to go to church every time I have a JMB gig.

Here’s a rundown of what I thought I needed to make another hybrid drumset:

• Drum module - $500-1000
• Cables - $100
• Rack - $180-300
• Drum pads - $200
• Cymbal pads - $200
• TOTAL - $1180-1800 (basically the price for another electronic kit)

Here’s what has happened instead:

• Drum module - traded a drumset for a drum machine; will also transport my Yamaha module back and forth from church.
• Cables - put to use some cables I had at home and only ended up spending about $50 on what I needed.
• Rack - Elected to use actual drum hardware instead (see next item).
• Drum pads - My roommate had some very nice Pintech pads that he wasn’t using; I’m taking them off his hands for $160.  They can be mounted with standard L-shaped tom mounts, meaning I can use regular acoustic tom mounts.
• Cymbal pads - transporting my Yamaha pads back and forth from church; putting them on regular cymbal stands.
• TOTAL - $210

So, I was able to put to use several items that I already had on hand and saved a lot of money.  Always a good thing.

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After a weekend break, I have some catching up to do….

• My apologies to Rich Brooks.  A couple of years ago, I was wondering why UK would ever hire a retired coach and expect to build a program.  Seems he’s done quite a good job over the last two seasons.  Sitting at 4-0 and looking at the rest of the schedule, I think UK is capable of a 10-2 record, but that’s awfully optimistic.  The thing is, it’s hard to tell just how good they are.  We’ve beaten two ranked teams in consecutive weeks.  At this point, the sky’s the limit.  With Notre Dame sitting at 0-4 for the first time in history, it would seem the college football world is off its axis.  Why not dream about a 10-2 season for the Cats?
• The Bengals played much better against the Seahawks than I expected.  They still couldn’t pull it out, but I had expected a loss anyway.  Granted, it would’ve redeemed their loss against the Browns last week, but I still think they have a decent shot at my prediction of 11-5.  I don’t expect them to beat the Patriots next week, but after that, the schedule softens a bit.
• The Josh Martin Band DVD is finally available!  I watched bits and pieces Saturday night, and watched it in its entirety yesterday.  I’m very pleased with how it turned out.  I still think it’s the best mix I’ve done to date, and Bert did a great job editing the video to get the best camera angles of each shot.  Bert also did a wonderful job on the artwork.  Thanks to Kari McGrath for some great photos to work with!  The DVDs are $15 and you get a copy of the audio CD as well.  I’m planning a fairly large update and/or redesign of the JMB website, so it will be available at our online store very soon.
• The hybrid drumset has performed admirably over the last two weekends.  I think it’s fairly close to being the perfect drumset for all occasions and playing situations.
• My new Motorola Q is pretty cool.  I’m really glad I didn’t spend a lot more money on a new Treo because it seems the Q can do everything the Treo can do.  I had to purchase a special program to get the phone to sync with my Mac computer, but that has made it very easy to keep track of contacts, calendar dates, etc.  I’ve yet to drop a call since switching back to Verizon, and the reception on my calls has been very clear.

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I got some stuff I want to get rid of.  Maybe someone out there wants some of my stuff that I want to get rid of:

Gretsch Catalina Mod Drumset - Blue Alien Finish - $400

Excellent condition; Comes with drums ONLY - no heads, no cymbals; does include tom mount, cymbal arm, and basic bass drum pedal

Zildjian 14″ ZHT Mastersound Hi-Hats - $100

Great for a beginner or practice set of hats; excellent condition; includes hi-hat stand

Edirol FA-101 Audio Interface - $250

Very good condition; for a list of features, visit the Musician’s Friend page description.

LaCie 160GB External FireWire Hard Drive - $75

Great for storing MP3s, photos, important documents and more.  Includes power supply, software, etc.

Portable 120GB External USB/FireWire Hard Drive - $75

Storage on the go!  No power supply needed.  Perfect for laptop users who need more space.  Can be used as either a USB or FireWire drive.

If anyone is interested in this stuff, send me an email.

Apple has just announced the release of the new iPod Touch.  Way cool.  I already have the 80GB iPod, and that’s enough for my music collection.  But, as I blogged about previously, I’ve been putting more videos on my computer.  I can’t put all of the videos on my iPod, so I’ve been considering an iPod for videos only.  Sort of iPod overkill, so I’m not sure how likely it is that I’ll do this.  But, the new iPod Touch has a bigger screen, which makes it more suitable for videos (same size screen as the iPhone).  Hmm…

Those who know me best know that I like my toys.  Perhaps a little too much.  I blogged about a new handheld recorder that I had purchased a few weeks ago that I plan on using for quick, on-the-spot recordings.  That was the M-Audio MicroTrack.  To date, I’ve yet to receive it.  Yeah - I ordered it a month ago.  To protect the not-so-innocent, I’ll spare the name of the place where I ordered this item.  This is the second time this year that I’ve had trouble ordering from this place, so I decided to cancel my order with them and will not be ordering from them anymore.

I checked another supplier, but they do not carry the MicroTrack.  In turn, I chose the Edirol R-09.  I think I made a good choice.  It has built-in stereo mics, records to SD cards, records in MP3 or WAV format, and is powered by AA batteries.  It should arrive today, and I’ll get to put it to use for the first time tonight.  (side note:  my sales rep from this supplier called me personally to confirm the order, verify method of shipping, price, and just to say hello - great customer service!)

I became more excited about my choice when I came across this website, which has an in-depth review of the recorder, complete with recording samples.

If you see me around recording everything in site, just smile and wave.  I have a feeling I’ll be using this thing a lot.

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Not that a lot of people care about my Friday night plans, but this is my blog, so I figure I’ll write whatever I want 

Anyway, tomorrow night, I’ll be heading to Lexington to return a book to Barnes & Noble.  Considering there’s a Chick-fil-A close by, it’s easy to figure out where I’ll be eating dinner.

The point of this isn’t to show how big of a geek I am by spending a Friday evening at a bookstore.  My point is that I wish Frankfort would get both of these places to come to town.  Heck, I’d even settle for a Borders.  While Poor Richard’s has the charm of being the “small town” bookstore, I totally dig the fact that B&N stays open late and has a great selection at good prices.  Not to mention, they’re actually pretty good to their members by offering discounts and coupons often.  These reasons would be my biggest problems with Poor Richard’s - “poor” hours, not-so-good selection and… well…. I guess I can’t complain about their prices.

What can you say about Chick-fil-A?  Good, Christian organization and great food.  Why wouldn’t we want a Chick-fil-A in town (yes, I’m aware of the one on KSU’s campus, but there’s something odd about going to a college cafeteria for food when I’m not a student there)?

So… you know where to find me tomorrow night.

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Since it’s holiday time, and everyone is shopping for gifts, I thought I’d pass along a couple of good deals I’ve come across.

• Chris Tomlin: The Early Years - Wal-Mart is selling a double-CD set of Chris Tomlin’s first two albums, The Noise We Make and Not to Us at a bargain price of $13.88. I’m listening to Not to Us as I type this (side note: how do you write so many great songs on one album?)
• Barnes & Noble Members Only Coupons - I recently became a Barnes & Noble member, due to buying a fair amount of books. Members usually save 10% on purchases, sometimes more. This week, they emailed me a coupon for an additional 15% off one time. I bit the bullet and finally purchased an ESV Reformation Study Bible. I saved over $25 off the retail price.

(I’m realizing now that this post was for gift buyers, and I’m talking about items I purchased for myself. Sounds a bit self-centered, eh? Don’t worry… I’ve already done my Christmas shopping for everyone else!)

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As I’m sure most of you have noticed, I’ve started using Flickr for my online photo gallery.  It’s fairly easy to use, and it syncs up to this blog, so that I can share pictures here.  Tonight, I discovered that it’s not all that I thought it was.

You see, I tried to create a new album, or “photoset” as they like to call it, and I’d already created three albums.  I learned this is the maximum for “free accounts.”  I guess somewhere I missed the fine print.  I would’ve been able to keep uploading photos, but they would’ve been an unorganized mess if I couldn’t put them in albums.

I was prompted to create a “pro” account at the rate of $24.95 for a year.  While I wasn’t thrilled about it, I decided I like Flickr enough to keep using it.  Now, I get unlimited bandwidth, more storage space, and all sorts of fun stuff.  Click on my Flickr badge in my sidebar to see my photos.

1. Sleeper sofa to replace my aging fouton. If you know of anyone giving one away, or know where to find a good deal on one, please let me know!
2. 5-drawer chest. My current three drawer chest has exceeded capacity due to my employment at a t-shirt print shop. T-shirts out da ears, yo. And yes, I wear them all. Requirements - simple, clean design (preferrably a contemporary style), and preferrably lighter than a small vehicle. I don’t want another hernia trying to move it around. Picky, huh?
3. 80GB portable hard drive. I’d like FireWire, but I’m seemingly stuck with USB unless I want to pay a small fortune.

(there’s plenty of other, much more materialistic items on the list, but these are the things I want the most right now)

I’ve been toying with the idea of getting cable…finally. I’ve hesitated to this point because I think it would only be a distraction from doing other, more productive things. However, it creates problems in situations like yesterday - the UK-UofL game was on ESPN. I had to go home to watch the game. I’m also slowly becoming annoyed at the fuzzy reception of the four channels I currently get.

The biggest catch to me getting cable - with my schedule, I’ll miss a lot of shows & games when they’re actually on. So, I’d need a way to watch them later. VCR? No way. Not good enough. DVD Recorder? Now we’re talkin’. Not only could I transfer my video recordings from my seldom-used camcorder to DVD extremely easily, but I could set the timer to record all the shows & games that I might miss, and watch them later. Either later that night before bed, before work in the morning, or even on my iBook - whenever & wherever is most convenient. Not to mention being able to record all of my old VHS tapes to DVDs.

What does cable have to offer? ESPN, first of all. Something interesting to watch during the once-in-a-blue-moon that I get bored. Movies, occasionally. The Weather Channel (notice the link to Bill Meck’s blog in the sidebar - I’m a closet weather geek). Fox News. Lots more.

Ehh…you all know how I am at this point. I’ve pretty much made up my mind. Cable is fairly affordable in Frankfort - $30/month. FPB is a good provider, and they’re good about adding channels and making the expense a good value. DVD recorders have become very affordable - $150 can get you something to get the job done well. I’ve got plenty of overtime pay coming to me in the coming month, so I’m not worried about being able to afford it. Most importantly, it won’t go on a credit card (what are those?).